Fishing for Koi Carp can quite easily be carried out using standard carp tackle and carp fishing rigs obtained from your local fishing tackle shop that are normally used for common carp – leather carp, mirror carp and fully scaled commons. Tactics and techniques used for common carp can be applied to fishing for Koi. The question is ‘Should we be doing it in the first place?’ To me it would be like serving up cat or dog for you Sunday meal – it just isn’t done!
I have seen famous angling writer and presenter John Wilson in one of his “Go Fishing” programs on TV happily pose with a brightly coloured Koi Carp that he has just caught. There are places in Australia where they have escaped from a fish farm and run wild and I can recall similar scenes from Australian Rex Hunt angling shows. True, nobody is going to kill and eat the ornamental Koi, it just seems a shame that such a regal fish could be subject to the hook and line.
For some reason, catching an artificially reared fish does not have the same allure to me as fishing for wild fish. However, there are times when I will happily stalk a farmed trout that has been stocked for the purpose of simply being caught. It is just that catching an artificially reared ornamental fish is completely wrong. To me it is like fishing in your garden pond, something I would definitely not like to do.
I am sure that Koi Carp are strong fighters, and they certainly grow to similar sizes as their wilder cousins. Koi carp tackle will be the same as your standard carp tackle, and vary according to the circumstances at the time. Knowing that they have been reared on artificial pelleted food might help with choice of which bait to use.
The likelihood of catching a Koi carp is going to be low – and if I do – as with most people – it will be by accident in a fishery where one or two might have been introduced. There appears is little reason for considering special fishing tactics or best carp fishing tackle that might be used, other than to urge anybody catching one by accident to treat the fish carefully and ensure its safe return to the water.